Needles sometimes need to be used for injections during medical procedures. The sight, thought and/or feeling of a needle can cause fear in the patient. This fear, or phobia, of needles is known as needle phobia.
Depending upon the degree of needle phobia, a patient can display a wide variety of symptoms. For example, a patient with needle phobia can have anxiety, a panic attack, an elevated blood pressure and/or an elevated heart rate knowing that a needle may or will be used in their medical procedure. In extreme cases the patient can faint due to a vasovagal reflex reaction. This leads to an unsafe situation for both the patient and the medical personnel. Other reactions of patients with needle phobia can include avoiding medical treatment if they know or believe a needle will be used. In extreme cases, some patients will avoid all medical care. This fear of needles can also be associated with the sight of a syringe.
In dentistry, a syringe fitted with a needle is often times used to deliver an anesthetic to the patient. The needle and syringe are inserted at least partially into the patient's mouth, where the needle is inserted into the gingiva and/or other tissues (e.g., oral mucosa) in order to deliver a local anesthetic. Using a local anesthetic can help to decrease intraoperative and postoperative pain, decrease the amount of general anesthetics used in the operating room, increase the patient cooperation during the procedure. Often times the injection is more painful and traumatic than the actual procedure.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a suitable device for injecting a local anesthetic that does not use a traditional needle and syringe configuration, which configurations are well known to cause issues with many patients.